The group diligently hacked each of the beast's corpses and drew out their beast cores. These cores can be consumed directly by any cultivator to replenish their qi and even strengthen their own body however by doing so, the risk of getting poisoned from it is high. The best way to make use of these cores is to refine it into a pill to filter the poisonous components away and even boost the efficacy of the beast core itself. Unfortunately, only magicians who have taken the path of alchemy can do the pill-refining and usually, these magicians have an affinity with the 'fire' element. Although a magician with 'fire' element isn't rare, talent plays a big factor for successful pill-refining so these so-called 'alchemists' are sparse in nature.
Yulrir and the group can only collect these monster cores and sell them once they go outside the realm. A beast core's value is actually high and it varies depending on the core's rank. The higher rank the beast the core belongs to, the higher the value of the core as well. Usually, a saint ranked beast core can be sold at the least 15 golds per piece. It is strikingly a big income for young cultivators like them. The group unanimously gave the late-staged saint beast's core to Yulrir as a token of gratitude and half of the cores to Theo and Vaughn while the rest were divided among Fenella, Eavan, Valmont, and Laur.
Theo casually gave his portion to Yulrir and the latter had effortlessly nodded as he stored the cores in his own ring. This act made everyone in the group dumbfounded and they all gave Theo an 'all-knowing' smile.
The group decided to take a rest until their qi and mana are replenished before they lead themselves inside the ruin's temple to explore.
"Aaahh!!! Junior brother Yulrir is really so clever! Hiding your aura and sneaking up into that beast! It is so cool!" Fenella waved her hands animatedly.
"Mhhhmm! It is! It is! Also, he was able to kill the beast in two strokes!!! Sometimes, I really wonder if you were really a beta or a god!" Eavan said with bright eyes full of veneration making Yulrir flush in embarrassment.
"Oi oi... have you forgot that Junior brother Theo had also unfolded something shocking! He actually possesses a heavenly-element, space!!!" Fenella added in excitement.
"Yes yes! But--- I still think that Junior brother Yulrir is the best given with his beta nature and on top of that, a beautiful face!" Eavan laughed.
"En!!! I agree on that! Junior brother Yulrir is the best!" Fenella agreed while looking at Yulrir with veneration.
Yulrir can remember how feisty and arrogant his two Senior Sisters yesterday when they first met but now, he was totally surprised by the total turn around. He can't help but feel embarrassed by the two girls' compliments and praises.
Theo who acts like a protective mother goose on Yulrir, can't help but sigh in defeat as the two girls' antics are really unstoppable. Afterall, getting praises for his wife is not really a bad idea.
"It was due to luck! The beast seems to know I was lurking around but he didn't expect that I'll be attacking... probably it was because I am a beta..." Yulrir retorted while shaking his head shyly.
"I'm surprised to meet a fellow swordsman... I can tell that Junior brother Yulrir is really a talented one!" The red-robed prince, Vaughn beamed in.
Before even Yulrir can respond, Theo stood swiftly before Yulrir blocking his wife's view of the prince.
"Of course he is!" Theo responded hurriedly.
The prince surprisingly remained calm and just nodded with a smile like he acknowledged Theo's statement.
The whole atmosphere became silent and awkward after that. Even the crows won't even dare to caw at a situation like this.
Yulrir silently pulled Theo's sleeves and gestured the man to sit down beside him. Theo gladly obliged and the invisible 'air pressure' had slowly dissipated. Yulrir knew how possessive alphas in nature and Theo is an epitome of it --- so 'manhandling' the aggressive alpha mate of him had become one of his expertise by now. Sometimes, even Yulrir can't help to find this side of Theo cute and nerve-wracking at the same time.
Vaughn silently sat with the other 'boys' to meditate. The other members of the group seem to pick up the cue as well and meditated in their respective corners.
The ruins without the horde of beasts are basically as peaceful like a still lake. The looming miasma around the temple also remained calm and no growls of beasts can be heard coming from it anymore. The group took a half-an-hour 'break' until Laur had asked if everyone is now all set to proceed forward.
Laur felt it is not fitted for him to take the 'leader' place and offered Vaughn to be the leader instead but to his surprise, Vaughn had also declined unhesitatingly.
"A leader does not always require one to be strongest in the group." Vaughn smiled and waved his hands dismissively. "With your calm and patient attitude, you'll be a great leader someday!" Vaughn's words made Laur smile sheepishly and somehow gained the confidence to treat his leader position more passionately.
The group including Theo and Yulrir chuckled on the new-found confidence of Laur as he leads the group forward.
"The miasma isn't poisonous... right?..." Fenella asked seeing that there is no other way for them to move forward without walking through the miasma.
"It is not... I have gone in earlier without any problem. I think this miasma is made not to poison but to restrict our qi and mana abilities." Vaughn said in a calm tone.
"Mhmm... I tried to use a wind vacuum spell to clear out the path but a weird force stopped my spell before it even materialized." Valmont said with a heavy sigh.
"Let's go with the same formation as earlier, do you guys agree?" Laur interjected.
Everyone nodded and took Laur's order seriously and attended to their previous roles.
"I'll go in a vanguard too." Vaughn said as he looks at Laur and waits for confirmation.
(A/N: vanguard = in formation... it means frontliner)
Laur nodded and said, "Mhmm... sounds good."
"I'll go in front... if something happens and I told you to run... run okay?" Theo whispered as he kissed Yulrir's forehead and heroically turned his back to move on the front line as a vanguard.
"I won't leave you alone... idiot." Yulrir mumbled as he kicked Theo's retreating back causing Theo to move forward clumsily.
Theo looked back at Yulrir with '???' expression and saw his wife casually gave him a cold huff.
*Cough, cough*
"Okay, let's go now." Laur instructed.
Yulrir stayed together with Fenella and Eavan in the middle of the formation as they'll act as support. Laur stayed in front of them acting as their protector. Vaughn and Theo silently maintained a meter apart from each other but they lead the way with utmost vigilance. If an attack is to be instigated by the group head on, Vaughn and Theo will naturally be the first one to intercept it. Valmont was lined the last in the formation and served as the watcher.
The group cautiously tread across the miasma-field and to their surprise, they did it without encountering any danger at all. They arrived in front of the temple's entrance like they just walked on a park.
"This is the temple's entrance..." Vaughn said in an 'as-a-matter-of-fact' tone.
"T-this is so anti-climatic!!!" Valmont cried out upon stepping into the temple's stair entrance.
"Shut up! Don't lower your guard, you dolt!" Fenella hand-chopped Valmont's head.
"There's a big concentration of 'qi' coming from the inside of the temple." Theo added as he moved nearer to the temple's entrance.
"It seems like it wasn't the miasma that we need to be cautious on... It's the temple itself." Eavan said in an exasperated voice.
"This is weird! It looks like a ruin from the outside of the miasma but the temple itself looks as good as it was built today." Fenella exclaimed.
The others had their eyes wide open as Fenella pointed that fact out and immediately panned their eyes from left to right as if trying to validate Fenella's statement.
"T-th-this!" Laur's mouth gaped open and found out that what Fenella said was true.
Theo touched the pillar near the entrance and knitted his brows. "The temple is protected with a thick qi..."
"It prevented the temple to age and be preserved even under the pressure of time." Eavan said with bright eyes.
"Whoever laid down the array for this is simply above the 'Immortal' level." Laur sighed in awestruck.
Yulrir panned his eyes and carefully observed the carvings on the temple's wall and entrance. The temple is simply painted in ethereal white color as it exudes an 'immortal' feeling. The entrance is at least 20 feet in height and at least 10 feet in width, it is big enough for an adult elephant to go in without any problem. There are carvings of different beasts all throughout the temple's wall that gives off a domineering aura. Somehow, the temple gave him a 'deja vu-like feeling' as if he had been here before.
"Let's continue..." Laur calmly ordered the group.
Like a group of obedient and behaved kids, the group resumed to their own roles and bravely went inside the temple. The temple's passage is also wide and the walls were beautifully covered with carvings and some ancient texts that the group hasn't seen before.
Surprisingly, the group had again met no danger on their way inside the temple and safely arrived at a wide open hall. In the middle of it, there is a wide gigantic tree with its branches carefully curved and bent onto the hall's ceiling. The tree's leaves are lush green and resplendent even with the absence of direct sunlight. The feeling it gives is calm but domineering at the same time.
Theo and Vaughn looked at each other and nodded as they both slowly approached the tree with utmost caution.
The two vanguards were about to take their 5th step towards the tree when Yulrir came running towards the two and gripped the back of their clothes to pull them back. Somehow, Yulrir had successfully dragged the two a few steps back.
"DON'T MOVE FORWARD!!!" Yulrir cried out and hugged Theo's arm like a child who is afraid of his parents leaving him behind.
"Don't move..." Yulrir once again mumbled with a hint of panic in his voice. His hands were trembling as he held Theo's arm tight.
Theo and Vaughn were taken aback and gave the black-hooded youth a confused look.
Theo hugged Yulrir to calm down and rubbed his chin on Yulrir's head. "We're not... We're not... calm down now."
The group found Yulrir's action so out-of-his-character and did not dare move as what Yulrir's instructed.
"There's a trap array ahead... I don't know why... but I feel like I've been here before..." Yulrir whispered as he pointed his hand towards the tree.
The group remained in a stupor for a while but nodded after a few breaths. Vaughn knitted his brow and turned his head towards the direction of the tree but he himself can't find any array traces that Yulrir was claiming earlier.
Vaughn brought out a small dagger from his storage ring and threw it weakly on the clear path ahead.
"CLANNNNGGGGGGGGG!"
The dagger successfully landed on the floor at least 10 steps away from them but what happened next had greatly alarmed the group. In a blink of an eye, the dagger started getting rusts and holes started to appear on its body. The process only took a few breaths of time as the entire dagger had rusted until it became nothing but a lump of sand into entirely nothing as if it had magically disappeared.
"I..I..I..I..I..I..I.." Fenella was the first one to stutter out.
"You..you...youu...you....youurr father! What the !@^#@#!" Valmont cursed out as his body involuntary took a step back until he clumsily fell back on his butt. "Ow.. oww... Even my damn bones won't be spared if ever we continued moving forward."
Theo and the others were also similarly panicking from the inside and can't help but to sweat coldly.
Vaughn even with his usually calm demeanor can't help but curse his entire ancestry for opening a dangerous realm like this. "MOTHER****! Do my ancestors hate people so much?!"
Theo looked at Yulrir once again and hugged him tightly. He wanted to smother Yulrir with passionate kisses right now for saving their lives.
"Junior brother Yulrir... let me give you a passionate kiss right now for saving the lowly m-- AHHHHHHHH!! I'M JUST KIDDING JUNIOR BROTHER THEO AAAAAHH-!!" Valmont cried out loud as Theo gave him a 'good beating'.
"STOP STEALING MY LINES YOU SH*T AH--" Theo roared whilst giving Valmont the 'passionate fists' which the group seem to ignore at the moment.
Yulrir once again turned his head towards the familiar tree with a puzzled look. He then placed his hand over his heart to calm himself down. Up till now, he doesn't have any idea how and why was he able to know about it. He can also feel that the ancient tree in front of them was observing them intently.
"I guess we have to go back now... there's no way we can go further." Laur said in a dejected manner.
The group gave Laur an approving nod as they started turning their body back to where they come from. At times like these, lives are more important than anything else. They started walking back towards the temple's entrance as a child-like voice had boomed out throughout the hall.
"Ayayaya--- Why are you all in such a hurry to leave?"
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A/N:
It's Dec 24 here on our place... ;u; Time went by so fast ah. ;v;
Thank you for reading and support... I know I may sound repetitive but I really mean it. ;u;
I'll try to update the next chapter by tomorrow night or by tuesday... *u*
HAPPY HOLIDAYS <3